Polyols for use in preparing polyurethanes are usually prepared by reacting an initiator compound having a plurality of active hydrogen atoms with an alkylene oxide in the presence of basic catalysts such as tertiary amines, sodium and potassium hydroxides and sodium wherein a sodium derivative, the alcoholate or alkoxide, is formed in situ. However, these catalysts must usually be removed by filtration and/or neutralization or other catalyst removal methods prior to use, particularly when prepolymers are to be prepared from such polyols.
Olstowski and Nafziger, in a co-pending application Ser. No. 107,242 filed Dec. 2, 1979, now U.S. Pat. No. 4,282,387, issued Aug. 4, 1981, disclose preparing polyols by reacting alkylene oxides with hydroxylinitiator compounds in the presence of calcium, strontium and barium salts or organic acids as catalysts which do not need to be removed when the resultant product is to be employed in the preparation of polyurethanes.
It has now been discovered that when calcium naphthenate is employed in a solid form as the catalyst in the aforementioned reaction that the reactivity rate between the epoxy-containing compound and the hydroxyl-containing initiator compound is increased as compared to the calcium naphthenate in liquid form.